Saran district is one of the thirty-eight

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

. The district, part of

Saran Division Saran division is an administrative geographical unit of Bihar state of India. Chhapra is the administrative headquarters of the division. Currently (2005), the division consists of Saran District, also called Chhapra District, Siwan District, Go ...

, is also known as Chhapra district after the headquarters of the district,

Chhapra Chhapra is a city and headquarters of the Saran district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is situated near the junction of the Ghaghara River and the Ganges River. Chhapra grew in importance as a river-based market in the 18th century when th ...

. It is considered as one of the richest Zamindari of Bihar after

Raj Darbhanga The Darbhanga Raj, also known as Raj Darbhanga and the Khandwala dynasty, was a Maithil Brahmins dynasty and the rulers of territories, not all contiguous, that were part of the Mithila region, now divided between India and Nepal. The rulers ...

Hathwa Raj Hathuwa Raj was a chieftaincy belonging to Baghochia dynasty of Bhumihars. It encompassed 1,365 villages, was inhabited by more than 391,000 people, and produced an annual rental of almost a million rupees It was located in the Saran Division ...

, Bettiah Raj and Raj Najarganj, Saran Raj.

Typonym

It is said that "Saran" is a corrupted version of the word ''Sarangaranya'' (forest of Deers). According to legends, earlier it was a dense forest full of Deers and home of Rishi Sarangi. Another suggestion is that the name is corruption of ''Sakra-aranya'' (the forest of Indra).

History

Chirand Chirand is an archaeological site in the Saran district of Bihar, India, situated on the northern bank of the Ganga River. It has a large pre-historic mound which is known for its continuous archaeological record from the Neolithic age (about 25 ...

, 10 kilometres east of Chhapra, is a stratified

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

, and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

settlement, which is known for its continuous archaeological record from the Neolithic age (about 2500–1345 BC) to the reign of the Pal dynasty who ruled during the pre-medieval period. The archaeological records suggest transitions in human habitation patterns in

dating from 2500 BC to 30 AD.

was a

Zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

Dynasty in the Saran Division of Bihar belonging to

Bhumihar Bhumihars, also called Babhan, are a Hindu caste mainly found in Bihar (including the Mithila region), the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, and Nepal. The Bhumihars claim Brahmin statu ...

s, which encompassed 1,365 villages, was inhabited by more than 391,000 people, and produced an annual rental of almost a million rupees. Hindi version of Saran Gazetteer titled as ''Srijan'' was released in September 2016.

Geography

Saran district occupies an area of , equivalent to

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

in the Netherlands. The district of Saran is situated between 25°36' and 26°13' north latitude and 84°24' and 85°15' east longitude in the southern post of the Saran Division of North Bihar. The

Ganges river The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

provides the southern boundary of the district, beyond which lie the districts of Bhojpur and Patna. To the north of Saran lie the districts of Siwan and Gopalganj. The Gandak river forms the dividing line with the Vaishali and Muzaffarpur districts in the east. To the west of Saran lie the districts of Siwan and Balia in Uttar Pradesh. The Ghaghra river forms a natural boundary between Saran and Ballia. The district is shaped like a triangle; its apex is the confluence of the boundary of the Gopalganj district and the GandakGanges river. The district is made up entirely of plains, but several depressions and marshes create three broad natural divisions: * The alluvial plains along the big rivers, which are subject to periodic inundation. * The uplands away from the rivers, not subject to floods. * The riverbed diara areas. India's biggest double-decker flyover is being constructed in

. This long double-decker flyover from Gandhi Chowk to Nagarpalika Chowk, is being constructed at the cost of 411.31 crore from the central road fund (CRF) under engineering procurement construction (EPC) mode by Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited (BRPNNL). It is longer than the double-decker flyover in

Santa Cruz–Chembur Link Road The Santa Cruz–Chembur Link Road, shortened to SCLR, is a arterial road in Mumbai, connecting the Western Express Highway (WEH) in Santa Cruz with the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) in Chembur. It contains the city's first and India's second ...

. Chief Minister

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician, who is serving as Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. The leader of the Janata Dal (Unite ...

laid the foundation stone of this double-decker flyover in July 2018, which is set to be completed by June 2022. The width of the flyover will be 5.5 meters. The double-decker flyover will be constructed from the eastern side of Bhikhari Thakur roundabout on NH- 19 crossing the Police Lines, Gandhi Chowk, Mouna Chowk, Nagarpalika (Rajendra) Chowk, bus stand and end at Daroga Rai Chowk near Zila school on the western side of

. The upper portion of the double-decker flyover bridge would be long and the lower portion .

Politics

Economy

Saran was earlier called 'money order economy' district, as people used to send remittances in money order to their families there. It is one of the 38 districts in Bihar currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF). It is a primarily agriculture based rural and suburban region with little industrial output. This can partly be attributed to the non business friendly socialism inspired governments led by

RJD The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: ''National People's Party'') is an Indian political party, based in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Kerala. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has tradit ...

in the region from 2001 to 2014. That period was marked by unethical election practices.

Government

The present collector and District Magistrate of Saran is Rajesh Meena . The Divisional Commissioner is Smt.Poonam(I.A.S). The district has three Subdivisions, 20 Community Development Blocks and 1807 villages.

Subdivisions

* Marhowrah * Sonpur

Blocks

* Amnour * Baniapur *

* Dariyapur *

Dighwara Dighwara is a town and a Nagar Panchayat in the Saran district, state of Bihar, India. The name probably derives from 'Dirgh-dwar', literally "large gate", as Dighwara is claimed to be the entrance to the mythological city of king Daksha. Durin ...

* Ekma *

Garkha Dangti is the oldest village in this location. In Dangti Pokhariya community lives. Dungra, Chausal, and Dokuna are also in the Garkha region. Garkha is the Himalayan fertile and lush green mountain country in front of Askot region of Uttarakha ...

* Ishupur *

Jalalpur Jalalpur is a town, tehsil and a municipal board in Ambedkar Nagar district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Geography Jalalpur is located at . It has an average elevation of . The city is directly connected to Azamgarh, Akbarp ...

* Lahladpur * Maker * Manjhi * Marhaura *

Mashrakh Mashrakh is a Block and town of Saran District in the western part of Bihar, India. It is located on the right bank of Ghoghari river. It is situated at 40 km from Chhapra and 98 km from state capital Patna. There are 17 Panchayats in Ma ...

Nagra Nagra is a brand of portable audio recorders produced from 1951 in Switzerland. Beginning in 1997 a range of high-end equipment aimed at the audiophile community was introduced, and Nagra expanded the company’s product lines into new markets. ...

Panapur {{unreferenced, date=September 2012 Panapur is a village in Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Utta ...

* Parsa * Revelganj * Sonpur * Taraiya

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Saran district has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 3,951,862, roughly equal to the nation of

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

or the US state of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. This gives it a ranking of 60th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 21.37%. Saran has a

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...

of 949

females Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females a ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 68.57%. * Population: Total: 3951862 Rural: 3598660 Urban: 35883 * SC Population: Total: 474066 (12.00%) Rural: 438183 Urban: 24089 * ST Population: Total: 36786 (0.93%) Rural: 35885 Urban: 901

Languages

At the time of the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, 93.16% of the population in the district spoke

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

, 4.45%

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and 2.28%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Languages include

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

, a tongue in the

Bihari language Bihari is a group of the Indo-Aryan languages. The Bihari languages are mainly spoken in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh and also in Nepal.Brass, Paul R. (1974). ''Language, Religion and Politics in North Ind ...

group with almost 40 million speakers, written in both the

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

and

Kaithi Kaithi (), also called Kayathi () or Kayasthi (), is a historical Brahmic script that was used widely in parts of Northern and Eastern India, primarily in the present-day states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. In particular, it was us ...

scripts.

Transport

The nearest airport to Saran District is Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport in Patna, approximately 74 kilometres (46 mi) away.

Notable personalities

* Dr. Rajendra Prasad *

Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for le ...

Bhikhari Thakur Bhikari Thakur (18 December 1887 – 10 July 1971) was an Indian Bhojpuri language poet, playwright, lyricist, actor, folk dancer, folk singer and social activist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest writer in Bhojpuri language and ...

Chitragupt (composer) Chitragupt Shrivastava (16 November 1917 – 14 January 1991), better known as Chitragupt, was an Indian film music director in Hindi cinema and Bhojpuri cinema. Personal life He was born in Sawreji, a village located in Saran district in the ...

Anand–Milind Anand and Milind Srivastava are a duo of Indian film music composers. Born to composer Chitragupt, they have composed music for over 200 Bollywood films. The brothers debuted in 1984 with '' Ab Ayega Mazaa'' and had their major breakthrough with ...

Abdul Ghafoor ʻAbd al-Ghaffār (ALA-LC romanization of ar, عبد الغفار) is a male Muslim given name, and, in modern usage, surname, built from the Arabic words '' ʻabd'' and '' al-Ghaffār'', one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which give rise to th ...

Lachhimi Sakhi Lachhimi Sakhi (1841–1914 born in Saran, Bihar), also Laxmi Das, Lakshmi Sakhi and Laxmi Sakhi was a Saint and Bhojpuri poet and writer, who is mainly known for his Bhajans and Kajari songs. His real name was Lachhimi Das but since he was a f ...

Pandey Kapil Pandey, Pande, or Panday (Hindi: पाण्डेय/पाण्डे/पाँडे/पाण्डेय) (Nepali: पाण्डे/पाँडे/पाण्डेय) is a surname found among the communities of Brahmins in India and ...

Ram Dulari Sinha Ram Dulari Sinha (8 December 1922 – 31 August 1994) was a nationalist, freedom fighter Indian National Congress, Indian parliamentarian, Union Minister, and Governor. Life She was Union Minister in Governments headed by Indira Gandhi and R ...

Ramchandra Manjhi Ramchandra Manjhi (IAST: Rāmcaṃdra māṃjhī; Bhojpuri: 𑂩𑂰𑂧𑂒𑂢𑂹६ 𑂧𑂰𑂖𑂹𑂕𑂲, 1925 – 7 September 2022) was an Indian Bhojpuri folk dancer and theatre artist who is famous as a Launda Naach performer. He was ...

* Dharni Das

References

External links

Official websiteSaran Information Portal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saran District Saran division 1976 establishments in Bihar Districts of Bihar